Safety leadership in small business

Why is good safety leadership important to small business?

Small business owners have a vital role to play when it comes to safety leadership and promoting a strong
safety culture in their organisation. When workers see importance being placed on working safely, they are
more likely to be motivated to follow safety procedures and raise safety issues.

By supporting and encouraging positive work health and safety practices, a better safety culture will
develop over time. A positive safety culture can help small business owners avoid costly incidents and
injuries, minimise productivity disruptions and reduce overheads.

Where to start
To develop a positive safety culture in your business, you need to show strong safety leadership.
Depending on the health and safety issue and what’s going on in your business, you may need to show
different types of leadership actions and behaviours.

This document provides a range of simple and immediate leadership practices you can put in place to build
a positive safety culture in your business.

Use these checklists to identify the key safety leadership issues for your business and create a plan of
action. Start by selecting five priority actions to put in place in your business. When you’ve completed these
actions, choose additional ones – and so on until you’ve put in place as many of the points as possible.

Actions
Commit to safety
Be clear that you are serious about work health and safety through your personal and business practices.
Your commitment to safety can be clearly shown by spending the time, money and resources needed to
provide a safe and healthy working environment.

Business practices Leader practices

 Have a clear safety policy and make it
visible to staff and visitors.
 Include your staff when planning ways to
raise the importance of safety in your
business.
 Understand the safety risks in your business
and do something about them.
 Formally demonstrate your focus on safety
by featuring it on your website or social
media page.
 Put up WHS signs, posters or a noticeboard,
or have a safety suggestion box.
 Personally decide to make safety as
important as any other part of your
business.
 Explain to others why safety is important to
you and your business.
 Show enthusiasm and interest for good
health and safety outcomes.
 Walk around your business, talk to staff and
find out what the biggest safety issues are.
 Be ready to act on safety issues when they
are raised, and explain your actions.
Get involved
When supervisors and managers are actively involved in safety, workers are more likely to raise safety
issues and follow safe work procedures. You can help improve everyone’s attitude to work health and
safety by leading by example in your business.

Business practices Leader practices

 Set goals for the safe work environment you
want in your business (including behaviours
and attitudes) and regularly check progress
against these goals.
 Put in place systems for safety issues to be
communicated, both from your workers up
to you and from you down to your workers.
 Include information about the safety
communications system in your business
documentation e.g. planning and inductions.
 Formally communicate your focus on safety
to everyone involved in your business via
email and meetings.
 Make sure any supervisors in your business
are consulted on safety, and that they all
apply the same approach when supervising
safety practices.
 Communicate the importance of safety in
different ways so everyone can understand
the message e.g. through talks, emails,
posters and demonstrations.
 Give regular feedback about the safety
practices in your workplace and help
improve them.
 Lead by example – show your workers how
you expect them to behave:
o wear personal protective equipment
o follow safe work procedures
o participate in safety training.
 Hold regular toolbox talks about safety.
 Help with identifying hazards and
developing safe work procedures.

Encourage participation
You can improve the safety culture in your workplace by encouraging others to get on board with your
approach towards work health and safety. This can include the way you speak about safety, respond to
safety issues and involve others in thinking about and acting upon safety issues.

Business practices Leader practices

 Schedule regular paid time for workers to
talk about and act on health and safety
issues. This may include:
o developing safe work procedures
o maintaining tools and equipment
o making changes to workplace layout
that improve safety
o refreshing their knowledge of good
safety practices.
 Have different ways to reward and
recognise good health and safety practices
e.g. spoken and written encouragement and
opportunities for promotion.
 Have a formal way of quickly and easily
raising and resolving safety issues e.g. a
form or email template.
 Inform new staff of the health and safety
practices and procedures you have in place.
 Make time to attend and actively contribute
to your business’ safety management
practices.
 Regularly reward your workers’ WHS
contributions and give prompt feedback on
safety issues.
 Talk to your managers and staff about
safety:
o Walk around your business and speak
to your staff about safety.
o Ask for input on planned equipment or
machinery purchases.
o Check in on safety once business
changes have occurred.
 Act on feedback, or give reasons why you
didn’t.
 Promote an open, positive environment to
dealing with health and safety concerns.

PN11836 Safety leadership in small business fact sheet Page 2 of 3

 Make work health and safety (WHS) part of your business
Make work health and safety a regular part of running your business. Including WHS in your standard
processes can improve normal standard practice for everyone involved in your business.

Business practices Leader practices

 Include WHS when you allocate
responsibilities to people in your business,
and follow up on their progress.
 Provide resources to manage WHS risks:
o Ensure workers have the right
equipment and training to carry out their
tasks safely.
o Allocate time to check that safety
related activities, such as reviewing
procedures and pre-start checks, are
being done.
 Make sure all staff, including supervisors,
are sufficiently trained and competent.
 Consider WHS at the same time as you are
making other business decisions such
aspurchasing equipment or
o engaging sub-contractors.
 Include WHS in your induction for new
workers.
 Discuss safety with your managers or staff
as part of a regular performance review.
 Review your budget and make sure money
allocated for safety has been spent on
safety, and that the amount you allocate to
safety is appropriate.
 Hold you staff and contractors accountable
for safety performance.
 Ask staff to explain safety protocols to you
and check whether or not they are easy to
follow.
 Be present for new worker inductions or
important team updates relating to safe work
practices.

Review your performance

Once you have set things in place to achieve good work health and safety management and culture in your
business, you will need to regularly check your systems and activities to make sure your improvements are
maintained.

Business practices Leadership practices

 Document the WHS risks in your business,
and review your documents regularly.
 Check that control measures are
implemented and working as planned.
 Seek advice as needed from WHS
professionals about how to best manage
health and safety risks.
 Review your safety performance and issues
reports, and act on any emerging trends.
 Include safety in your business planning and
make sure you consider safety during times
of change for your business.
 Join your regulator’s or employer
association’s safety network or leadership
program and learn from others who are
facing the same safety issues.
 Be aware of what is happening on the
ground, including activities carried out
internally or by contractors.
 Share relevant WHS data and information
with your workers.
 Address any health and safety problems
when they are identified following your
review.
 Encourage your workers to report incidents
and near misses – and learn from these.
 Take a personal interest in staying up to
date to date on safety issues relevant to
your business.

Workplace Health and Safety Queensland www.worksafe.qld.gov.au 1300 362 128

The material presented in this publication is distributed by the Queensland Government for information only and is subject to change without notice.
The Queensland Government disclaims all responsibility and liability (including liability in negligence) for all expenses, losses, damages and costs incurred
as a result of the information being inaccurate or incomplete in any way and for any reason. © State of Queensland 2015.